An attempt to scrub the gathering moss off some stones and help them keep rolling smoothly along ... Thoughts on information technology and anything else, by Tony Austin, after a lifetime in Science and then the IT industry.

Monday, December 31, 2012

When a business makes an offer, it needs to be very careful about the exact wording of the offer. And especially so if it’s sent out by mail when the wording cannot be retracted as it might if the offer appears, say, on a web page where it can be edited at any time.

I’m an existing customer of VentraIP with website, starting from mid-2012 when they made an offer that was too good to refuse, and I’ve had website notestracker.us hosted with them since then (and going very well, no issues whatsoever).

I receive their regular marketing e-mails, and was very happy to read the following one that arrived in the early hours of Boxing Day (26/12/2012):

Hi Tony,

We made it!

Looks like it wasn't the end of the world after all, and as promised we're holding a massive sale celebration to see out 2012.

Grab a new EasyTrust SSL certificate for just $24.95 for 1 year when you place your order via our website and use coupon code 25OFFSSL.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and cheers to 2013.

Kind regards,

Cheyne Jonstone Chief Executive Officer

This was something I’d been waiting for, an offer similar to the one that I’d taken advantage of on mid-2012, so I jumped online and started the ordering process, I wanted to sign up for the same sort of deal as previously, paying up front for three years of web hosting.

80% Off New Hosting Services!

Santa Bear is feeling very generous this Christmas, and this year he has a coupon for 80% off the first invoice for any new Economy, Business or Multi-Account cPanel web hosting plan for up to 1 year.

To take advantage of this extra special offer, simply use coupon code SB80 when placing your order online.

You’ll notice immediately (since I’ve highlighted it in red) that this offer made earlier in December clearly does not extend past one year of hosting. I examined the Boxing Day offer very carefully, and could find No such phrase, so before starting off the ordering process I certainly didn’t expect there to be any such restriction.

I raised an eTicket explaining the above points carefully and precisely.

Subsequently I’ve had a couple of e-mail interactions with VentraIP staff, who claim that the offer is for up to one year of web hosting and don’t agree with me that the wording does not state this restriction. (They gloss over the fact that it says “You and your friends, family and colleagues can purchase any new . . . cPanel hosting service and take 75% off the first invoice.” where I’ve highlighted the key term in red.)

In one of my e-mails, I asked to be put in touch with VentraIP CEO Cheyne Jonstone himself, to no avail. I’m still waiting, but not holding my breath.

My philosophy is always to ask to go straight for the the top person in the organization, but the dragons guarding the door very rarely let that happen!

Hell, I’m running a business myself and as CEO of that business I will always let any customer or prospect get in direct touch with me to discuss my software and services. After more than forty years in the IT business I have no doubt whatsoever that rapid and effective communication with prospects and customers is one of the very top attributes of a successful organization.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

I was reading this IBM Redbook today, and it didn’t make a good first impression:

I really love IBM Redbooks, but not at all the way that this one starts off. Integrating cloud systems with on-premise systems? You don’t say!

The Redbook makes lots of incorrect statements, such as this gem (one of many) on page 5:

Monitor and manage resources in a standardized way across on-premise and off-premise resources.

Then today there was this article in Climate Spectator concerning the stand taken by Australian senator John Madigan:

In his concern for the potential health effects of wind turbines, Madigan has put before parliament a series of amendments to the Renewable Energy Act. These would suspend the accreditation of a wind farm to create renewable energy certificates if it creates “excessive noise”. He defines that to be when the level of noise that is attributable to the wind farm exceeds background noise by 10 dB(A) or more when measured within 30 metres of a household or business premise.

Within 30 metres of a household or business premise, really? (I wasn’t aware that a premise can be location-based, were you?)

Unfortunately this particular mangling of a beautifully bizarre language goes on every day like the above two examples. We see it a lot in Australia due to the roll-out of our National Broadband Network and use of the term whose acronym is FTTP

So I must trudge wearily on, trying to make sure that the final “s” is used wherever necessary.

I know, I know, I should do something better with my time, but it gets under my skin and irritates me intensely, so I scratch and scratch and therefore need to do something about it.

So my campaign struggles on -- based on the premise that if I continue to highlight this sad matter then at least a few people might see the error of their ways.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Before I joined IBM Australia in 1970, I spent most of the 1960s teaching Chemistry, General Science and Mathematics to older high school students.

A couple of times at the start of each year I would take classes of junior grade kids newly arrived from primary school. I always admired their freshness, openness and willingness to learn – that is, before years of high school regimentation wore off some of that freshness and keenness.

After more than forty years in the IT industry, I am attempting to undertake a broad-brush relearning of all things scientific, on various aspects of physics, chemistry, life sciences, cosmology, climate science and other things that have developed so much over those four decades and still intrigue me.

This includes wondering about how high school science teachers go about things these days. So I was extremely interested in a segment earlier this evening in the 7.30 program on ABC Australian television.

Physics and chemistry are the bane of many a high school student, but what if we're pitching the ideas to them too late? Can eight-year-olds absorb atomic theory? One teacher has asked that question in a bold experiment at a Brisbane primary school. And he says it shows young minds are much more advanced than we think.

CDBurnerXP is free and very good software for burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks, but unfortunately the default installer installs OpenCandy which troubles some people.

Cranial Soup, for example, states:

They claim to be doing something noble, but the only thing sweet about OpenCandy is the sales pitch to naive developers that might just fall for it, tricking them into thinking it is somehow different than the typical common adware/spyware. … A lot of developers do seem to be biting the bait, but no matter how you slice it, it's still adware/spyware, and to me it stinks worse than the old fashioned kind.

The WinSCP program ( a free SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Windows) gives its reasons for including OpenCandy:

WinSCP uses OpenCandy advertising module in its sponsored installation package. By using this version of the installer you support WinSCP development. Thanks you! [sic] If you do not want to support WinSCP development in this way, you can always use the other ad-free installation package.

The OpenCandy module shows at maximum one ad and only during the installation. WinSCP application itself does not contain OpenCandy and does not show any ads.

OpenCandy is advertising application. It is similar to Google AdSense, except it displays advertisements in installation program instead on a website. These advertisements promote another software packages. The advertisements are selected by providers of software being installed (in case of WinSCP it means WinSCP developers). When user installing a software (WinSCP) chooses to install promoted package, revenue is generated and shared between OpenCandy and software providers (WinSCP developers).

OpenCandy has attracted criticism because of privacy concerns. Past versions of OpenCandy were considered adware by Microsoft Security Essentials as they "may send user-specific information ... without obtaining adequate user consent". OpenCandy have claimed that this is because another company used OpenCandy without the formal warning in their EULA.

Well, as a software developer and vendor I can understand the supposed benefits of OpenCandy, but I wouldn’t use it myself and am not so happy about Windows installers that use it.

I’ve been using CDBurnerXP for a number of years, but only today came across its somewhat obscure option to avoid using OpenCandy. (Perhaps I’ve missed this option because it was only recently added, does anybody know when it appeared?)

Image (A) shows the regular CDBurnerXP download page, where I’ve placed a bubble to show the relevant link that’s very easy to overlook:

Clicking on the link “More download options” leads to an alternative download page, as shown in image (B), with the trimmed-down installer links circled:

WinSCP has a similar installer that omits OpenCandy.

I wonder how many other programs offer a bypass like this. While OpenCandy is fairly benign, it can be an unwanted intrusion on your Windows system, so bypassing it should be a universal option.

About Me

Tony Austin ... Trained in science and engineering, still tend to approach life from a scientist's or engineer's viewpoint, but over the years have picked up skills in sales/marketing, journalism and other non-technical areas. Taught Chemistry / Math / Science in high schools. Joined IBM Australia in 1970, retired in 1995, since then have been an "independent consultant" [an oxymoron]. So now I have over four decades in the IT business, still enjoying it enormously - except, that is, for the same silly mistakes being repeated time and time again in function and interfaces, won't we ever learn? ... Decided to retire from IT consulting at end of 2013 after 44 years in the industry, closed Asia/Pacific Computer Services then, but am still regularly writing technology articles as an industry observer.